Xmas Stuff

[DavidKW]

I hate Xmas, but would like to like it, but I was just thinking although this thread is not exactly original (from what I scoured from this site):

But does:

Anyone have a favourite particular Xmas edition of a comic, both from childhood memory (or adult a la Viz), or from a collectors' perspective?

Also - do you have an favourite annual you received that helped represent a good Xmas?

Also a worst annual you received (for either content or it was not the one you wanted your parents to give you?). All which represented one of a worst Xmas of your life?

[DavidKW]

I'll say some of my cases:

A fave Xmas edition - the Beezer in 1977, received during what had been a bad month for me (dentists, my family. battleaxe teacher). Loved this would like to find a copy again. All came out good for all characters apart from the hapless Pop (thanks to Dick & Harry).

One of the best strips was the Baby Crockett one - his grandad remembered Xmas not as good in his day & Baby picturing his grandad in his body (some of the best BCs were when his imaginationran wild). Always sticks in my mind: "we used to get lots of clean white snow, not the rain & drizzle you get today!". So true fior Xmases I remember - I didn't experience a white Xmas until 2009, when 30/40-ish!

Also loved the 78 Beezer annual I got that year.

A worst was in 1979 getting a Cub Scout Annual that year when I wanted a Look-In one. But my pop-hating academic parents thought otherwise & wanted a stepford son. Spent that one rowing about my wanting to leave Cubs & not getting to watch all the things on TV I wanted to & all what my mates were watching (we had no portable TV then - anti-Tv parents. Just 3 channels & things to watch then).

[helsbels]

I do remember particular annuals I received at Christmas that always stuck in my mind (and I now have them all over again!). My well remembered favourites were June Book 1975 - I loved EVERY story in that book; the Jinty Annual from 1976; The Tammy Annual that featured "Patsy and the Beast Of Banchester" (a reprint from June comic) - can't remember the year offhand. I would say all my Misty annuals from 1979 - 1986 but I always got these in August/September when they came out. I remember getting the first one from a market stall in Camden Town in 1978 and the vendor saying - "these are going to be a sell-out" and I do believe demand outstripped supply if we are to believe all the disappointed letters from the weekly comic from those unlucky enough not to get a copy.

[paw broon]

At my age, I find it difficult to remember which annuals were under the tree at Christmas, except, that is, for either The Broons or Oor Wullie. But I do have a habit of reading a Magnet and a Nelson Lee Christmas story at this time of year. The Bunter stories are hilarious and in Nelson Lee, you can always rely on a good haunted house, ghosts and mad magicians. Great stuff.

[stevezodiac]

I've mentioned it before but I still have the first TV21 annual from 1965 and I still remember spilling my Rice Crispies over the cover on Christmas morning 1965 - we only had rice crispies at Christmas as my parents couldn't afford such extravagances during the year. Also got a Chad Valley Give-A-Show projector with Hannah-Barbera cartoons slides.

[SID]

My favourite memory of Xmas and comics is waking up in the early hours of Christmas morning and finding a full pillowcase at the bottom of my bed. Among the little presents (the main one would be downstairs under the tree) would be a Dandy book and Beano book.

I still can remember wrapping the bedcovers around me (in those days you didn't have central heating) as I eagerly read every page in those books. Absolutely brilliant and I have them to this day.

[SteveinOz]

The 1992 annual was the first time I read the Beano when I was around 7. My original copy is scrawled in and heavily read, but it started a long obsession with the comic so I've held onto it.

[DavidKW]

Just had a better memory - getting the 1977 Beezer annual & really enjoying it while watching the Christmas Top Of The Pops (my first memory of one). A rare occasion Xmas dinner didn't clash with it. It was the TOTP including Abba, The Wurzels, Demis Roussous & Showaddywaddy (all tunes that could appeal to a 6 year old as I was then - good job I was 9 when I got into pop & New Wave had now kicked in). Introduced by Noel Mr Swap Shop & Decrepid Letching Toad (DLT).

[philcom55]

One thing I liked about Christmas issues of old British comics was the way in which the seasonal theme was reflected in serious features like Sexton Blake as well as the more humorous ones. Here are some examples from Knockout in 1952.







...It's interesting to see Billy Bunter and his sister co-starring in the same strip btw.

- Phil Rushton

[philcom55]

...And to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of that long-gone Christmas Past here are some more pages from the 1952 Christmas issue of Knockout - proving that, when it came to festive thrills and spills, the Amalgamated Press were more than capable of giving DC Thomson a run for their money!













Hard to believe that Britain was struggling under postwar austerity and a mountain of debt at the time!

In my opinion that issue features some pretty high-power artistic talent (I really love 'Our Ernie'!). Does anyone want to have a go at identifying the once-and-future stars whose work is represented in these pages?

- Phil Rushton

[stevezodiac]

I'm pretty sure Sporty was by Reg Wooton

[philcom55]

...I thought somebody might get that!

- Phil R.

[Digifiend]

Wikipedia names Hugh McNeill as the artist on Our Ernie, as well as Deed-a-Day Danny. Whether he drew these particular examples though, I don't know.

[felneymike]

Hmm. not many comic-related Christmas memories for me, I was more into videogames and that as a kid. I do remember my first annual (also) being the 1992 Beano Annual, though. I still have it, but with the front cover missing, it was read to pieces! My brother would usually get the Dandy Annual, though now, 20 years later, I just get both XD.

One of my favourite childhood annuals was actually the 1976 Beezer book, though I got it myself at a car boot sale on what was probably supposed to be a hot summer's day (though I instead remember cloud and spotty rain). That too has been read to bits and is missing it's front cover, now!

I usually try to read a Christmas Union Jack, Boys' Friend or Magnet around this time of year, though this year I'm actually reading through a winter-set serial about a railway strike from The Boys' Journal, 1913-14. Currently reading the issues from late January 1914, though the setting of the story is simply "the winter". Don't know if there will be a Christmas episode or not... maybe I ought to get a Nelson Lee out, to be on the safe side!

[AndyB]

Reg Parlett on Beaver Patrol and Eric Roberts on Mike, not that you need me to tell you that